Bond is back. With a vengeance. Devil May Care is an electrifying new chapter in the life of the most iconic spy of literature and film, written to celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth on May 28, 1908.

An Algerian drug runner is savagely executed in the desolate outskirts of Paris. This seemingly isolated event leads to the recall of Agent 007 from his sabbatical in Rome and his return to the world of intrigue and danger where he is most at home. The head of MI6, M, assigns him to shadow the mysterious Dr. Julius Gorner, a power-crazed pharmaceutical magnate, whose wealth is exceeded only by his greed. Gorner has lately taken a disquieting interest in opiate derivatives, both legal and illegal, and this urgently bears looking into.

Bond finds a willing accomplice in the shape of a glamorous Parisian named Scarlett Papava. He will need her help in a life-and-death struggle with his most dangerous adversary yet, as a chain of events threatens to lead to global catastrophe. A British airliner goes missing over Iraq. The thunder of a coming war echoes in the Middle East. And a tide of lethal narcotics threatens to engulf a Great Britain in the throes of the social upheavals of the late sixties.

Picking up where Ian Fleming left off, Sebastian Faulks takes Bond back to the height of the Cold War–but also shows Bond facing dangers with a powerful relevance to our own times.

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10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT JAMES BOND & IAN FLEMING A Quiz

Q: Although James Bond is regarded by many as the quintessential English hero, he is actually not English. What is his nationality in the books? A: He is half Scottish and half Swiss. He also hates that most English of drinks, tea--and describes it as 'mud'!

Q: Bond has had many famous incarnations on the big screen but, prior to these, he was first played on the radio by which British actor and game show host? A: Bob Holness of Blockbusters fame

Q: Which Bond villain shares a birthday with his creator? A: Ernst Stavro Blofeld. On Her Majesty's Secret Service reveals that Blofeld was born on 28 May 1908. Ian Lancaster Fleming entered the world on the same day at 7 Green Street in London.

Q: Which American President was a big fan of the Fleming novels? A: President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was known to be a big fan of Fleming and listed From Russia With Love as one of his top 10 favourite books. Bizarrely, both Kennedy and his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald are believed to have been reading Bond novels the night before Kennedy was killed.

Q: Where did Fleming write all his Bond books? A: At Goldeneye, his Jamaican home. Although now part of a luxurious holiday resort, the house was very basic in Fleming's time--so much so that his friend and neighbour Noel Coward referred to it as Goldeneye, Nose and Throat!

Q: Although Ursula Andress wears the most famous bikini in cinema history in her iconic performance in Doctor No, in Fleming's novel of the same name the character Honeychile Rider wears even less. What does she wear? A: She is naked save for a knife-belt.

Q: The first Bond novel, Casino Royale, originally had a different title when it was published in the US. Under what title was it initially published here? A: The initial title here was You Asked For It.

Q: What is James Bond’s favorite meal? A: Breakfast. He has a particular penchant for scrambled eggs, and the short story 007 in New York even includes his own recipe for them.

Q: Who is Miss Moneypenny named for? A: Miss Moneypenny was named after a character in an unpublished novel written by Ian Fleming's brother, the travel writer Peter Fleming.

About the Author&colon;

Sebastian Faulks’s seven previous novels include the international bestseller Birdsong (1993), Charlotte Gray (2000), and, most recently, Engelby (2007). He lives in London, is married, and has two sons and a daughter.